A Membership Requirement

I think any gathering of people who claim to be Jesus-followers should add a requirement of all participants...

Resolved that all members of this church must complete the following: Once a year you must attend worship at a church other than your home church. You must go to a church worship gathering that you have never attended before, where you do not know anyone. If this particular congregation worships in a permanent facility, it must be a place you have never entered.

You will discover that your experience does not depend on how eloquent, dynamic, entertaining, or motivating you find the speaker(s) to be. Nor does it rise or fall on the quality of the music. It matters not how many or how few people will be there. Your experience will be a good one or a negative one depending on this - how welcomed you feel within the first five minutes of entering the building and how at-home you feel throughout your time there.

Do you think that idea would sell in most congregations? Yeah...I doubt it, too. If it happened, though, I guarantee you it would change a fellowship of Jesus-followers forever, and it would change the lives of many who would be drawn to that congregation.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Whose Job To Learn Whom?

In our worship services here we just finished a message series on the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, based on the book by United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase. The five practices include: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity. We now have a group of people examining each of these practices in depth on Sunday mornings.

We've just started our look at Radical Hospitality. Each of us have been asked to recall what it was like to attend a church worship service for the very first time. That's a little hard for me to measure, as most times I've attended a congregation's worship for the first time I am coming in as the new pastor. However, I did remember an occasion quite a while back when I attended a worship service at which I would preach for the first time. Of course, people were very cordial. (What choice did they have; I was the new guy in the pulpit, like it or not.) I was welcomed warmly, and I appreciated that. I do recall, though, that I felt something very noticeable. I got the sense that it was my job to learn and understand them, rather than their job to learn and embrace me. I remember thinking at the time, "If I wasn't assigned here as a pastor, if I was just a person looking for a place to connect with Jesus and to be accepted by those who follow Jesus, and I was made to feel this way, I doubt if I'd come back."

I don't think anyone in any fellowship of Jesus-followers intends to send a message like this. However, life is hard enough, and we have to grasp for attention and work our way into being recognized and approved-of in more than enough ways. It would be nice to walk into a worship service of strangers and get the sense that they're saying, "We don't know who you are, but it's our job to learn you and embrace you, because that's what Jesus calls us to do."

If you are a Jesus-follower and you are a part of a congregation, what was it like the first time you showed up there? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.